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During the inception meeting of the fish catch data intervention in 2022, Mwashee Hassan, a data collector from Munje Beach Management Unit (BMU), expressed his hope for a future where community data collectors would not only collect fish catch data using the paper-based methods but also digitally enter, analyze, interpret and present their findings to their BMU members. Today, that hope has become a reality…
“The data journey started in the tail end of 2022. At the time, we used paper-based data collection methods. We hoped to transition to digital collection, and we looked forward to a crescendo where there would be a change of guard and the community-based data collectors we had just started working with would take over the entire data management process, right from collection to presenting findings in community feedback sessions. It is surreal that, that moment is now.” Stephen Musyoka, Fisheries officer –COMRED.
Fisheries management is often characterized with a top-down approach where decision-making power rests with those in authority who often are not directly involved in fishing leaving the communities who live near the oceans and that directly depend on the ocean for their livelihoods with the shorter end of the stick. The communities are put in a place where they are eliminated by design or loopholes in policies from making and influencing decisions that affect the resources, they in real sense manage and interact with daily.
In the year 2005, the co-management approach in fisheries resource management was introduced in Kenya. This system brought about power and responsibility sharing between resource users and the government through institutions such as Beach Management Units in the Kenyan context. However, these institutions require a wide range of support and resources to fully implement their mandate.
The role of the BMUs is to promote conservation of marine resources and improve the livelihoods of its members. The effective implementation of this mandate is heavily reliant on the availability of data that can inform approaches to take, how to take them and who to involve.
“For effective fisheries monitoring, BMUs require different fisheries data types, for example is fish catch data. Often, fish catch data collection and management in our BMUs is done by government and non-governmental agencies. It is these entities that in the end retain the data and use it for their own decision making.” Mtengo Omar, Mkwiro BMU chairperson & Chairperson of Kwale BMUs Network (KCBN)
In our fish catch data initiative, we have trained 18 community-based data collectors across 9 BMUs in Kwale to collect data, enter and can now analyze, interpret and present findings to their communities.
“We want to change the narrative where BMUs think and feel the fish catch data collected in their BMUs is not theirs. If the community does not understand and own the data management process, collecting it is null and void,” Stephen Musyoka, Fisheries officer, COMRED.
According to Mohamed Kassim, the Wasini BMU data collector, “Involvement in data collection and analysis has opened our eyes and changed our perspective on data. We have worked with organizations that didn’t give us an opportunity to interact with data the way we are doing now. We are empowered to ask the hard questions and define data needs and engagements with other organizations working in our BMUs.”
“We have collected data for over a year now. Through interactions with it, we have been able to notice some trends in the data. Some decline and increase in catch we can explain and attribute to issues such as climate change, market trends and gear use.” Mohamed Ndalu, Shimoni BMU data collector.
“From the data analysis we have done, we had a revelation of just how much effort our fishers are using in fishing and getting very little in return. We are using these insights to introduce initiatives such as Value addition and business skills training to improve octopus fishing in our village.” Chimete Bakari, Munje BMU chairperson
Artisanal fisheries are pivotal in food security and support the livelihoods of a big percentage of coastal communities. However, most fishermen do not recognize and treat fishing as a business. Using data, we show them the resources and their abundance that exist within their areas and through the value addition intervention which we have started implementing with the support of Norad, we seek to improve fishermen attitude towards fishing to see it as a business and improve processing of marine products to improve fisher livelihoods.
The fish catch data journey in the 9 BMU engaged started out slow and turbulent but gradually gained momentum and we have continued to witness tremendous success. From giving young women and men, a front row seat to fisheries management through data, empowering communities to understand and use data for decision making and opening our eyes to value addition gaps in the communities we work with. Seeing the once shy data collectors now confident, standing tall and explaining complex data in a simple and an understandable way is impressive.
“We are filled with pride to see the strides made by our data collectors in learning and understanding data collection and analysis. Additionally, the trust of communities in the catch data has been restored since it’s handled and analyzed by one of our own,” Jafari Mtwana Hassan, Fish dealer, Kwale.
“The first annual data feedback we had indicated octopus catch was high in our BMU. This showed us the potential of our area to have a seasonal closure to enhance the production of octopus. We used these findings to initiate discussions with Reefolution foundation to setup an octopus closure which will largely benefit the women octopus gleaners in our BMU.” Mwatue Vuyaa, Mkwiro BMU data collector.
As we put plans in place to finally expand data collection initiatives to Kilifi County, we are confident we have a pool of trained and experienced data collectors who can train and mentor new data collectors. Additionally, as BMUs prepare to conduct elections for new leaders, we are optimistic that the existing data collectors will play a key role in passing down information about the state of fisheries for their BMUs to help the new leaders make informed management decisions, utilizing the available fish catch data records.
